The Rainbow Queen!

As I’ve mentioned, my daughter starts planning her Halloween Costumes months before the first pumpkins are ripe. When she finally decided to be the “Rainbow Queen” this year, she started hurling design ideas at me left and right. To halt the barrage, I asked her to draw me a picture and show me what her costume would look like.

I give you… The Rainbow Queen!

It took me a good month to come up with how I would execute this design. I made a few sketches, but none were quite right for the designer, so we headed to the fabric store to see what would strike her fancy. We bought yards of tulle, in every color of the rainbow, yet I still had no idea how I would construct it. She didn’t want a zipper, and buttons up the back were out because they get caught in her hair. We also both agreed that this dress should be able to fit for a long time.

I finally settled on making a simple peasant dress, out of rainbow fabric that her Nana gave us, with white lacy, puffy sleeves that her Nee-Nee gave us. Then, I would sew on the layers of tulle. Oh, and while at the fabric store she said she needed a blue cape and a crown the shape of Sleeping Beauty’s tiara, but with rainbow hearts. OK, got it!

I found a free tutorial on making a peasant dress at Scattered Thoughts of a Crafty Mom, which was perfect because I didn’t have to spend anytime drafting my own pattern. The only change I made was adjusting the sleeve to make it elbow length, and added some smocking.

I used the “short” sleeve template because it was fuller, but cut it longer.

Then I did a tight spiral of three rows of smocking. You can learn more about how to smock here.

The dress hit a little below the knee, plenty of room for the tulle rainbow. I added the rows of tulle from the bottom, starting with purple. For the tulle, I cut 7 inch strips, 2 yards long, and used 2 of these strips (double thickness) per row. I gathered them by basting the 2 strips together and pulling the thread to create a ruffle. I then evenly spaced the gathers and sewed in place.

I spaced the rows about 4 inches apart. My fabric had lines in the pattern, which really, really helped make this step go quick and easy. That white band at the top of this picture is a strip of 1 inch elastic that I stretched and sewed over the top of the red tulle. It finished the edge and gave the dress a waistline. I added a gold sequin band when the dress was done.

You’ll notice the original design had sequins glued all over the skirt, luckily Nana Carol had a few of these gems laying around for us to have. I hot-glued them on by sandwiching the tulle between the patches and a little bit of felt.

The crown was really easy to make, I just looked at Sleeping Beauty’s crown and cut out a similar shape, then decorated it with felt hearts, glitter glue and gems.

Attaching it to a headband gave it the right shape, too. The gold braid at the bottom hides the glue nicely. This crown will get plenty of use around here!

The cloak turned out beautifully! I used a free tutorial at Fleece Fun, and it was simple and quick. I wish I would have made it out of fleece instead of this costume velour, but she loved it! I lined the hood and finished the edges, which the tutorial says are optional, but made the cloak really special. I also top-stitched the outer edge of the hood, which was not in the directions, but helped keep the fabric from slipping when she wore it.

The Rainbow Queen was regal and beautiful on Halloween, and I give my daughter all of the credit for designing her own amazing costume.

Did I mention she is kindergarten? I studied costume design in college and Halloween is when I indulge my children’s fantasies.